Not allowing abortion to be covered in health care reform is a betrayal of women by Democrats.

madfloridian

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon Jul-20-09 11:22 PM
Original message

Not allowing abortion to be covered in health care reform is a betrayal of women by Democrats.

And before someone says I have written about that before, well, yes, I surely have. I will probably do it again.

I want to give a big shout-out to the St. Pete Times columnist Robyn Blumner on this topic.

Don't give up the fight for choice on abortion

In a tribute to Dr. Tiller, she mentions that if abortion becomes a pawn in a political game it will be a betrayal of women. Amen!

Which brings me back to the national debate on health care, where there is a major effort stirring to block abortion coverage in the plans that emerge. If abortion becomes a disposable pawn in this political game, then the Democrats will have betrayed women.

Among the numerous anti-abortion amendments filed in Congress last week on health care reform were measures to ban abortion services in any government-defined health plan or one subsidized by federal funds. This would mean no abortion coverage in any government option, and women who currently enjoy such coverage in private insurance could lose it. About 90 percent of private health insurance plans currently cover abortion services.

Why am I worried that Democrats, who are in solid control of Congress, and the White House may allow this? Because they refuse to be out front making the humanist case for the right to choose. This political cowardice plays into the perception that the other side has cornered the market on morality.

Kudos to Robyn for that column.

There's a lot of caving in lately on women's rights. It is coming to the fore now that that 19 Democrats are joining the GOP in demanding that the new health care reform not cover abortions. What worries me is that so many at liberal forums think that would be okay.

Here are the 19 Democrats who signed the letter.

These are the signers: Dan Boren (Okla.), Bobby Bright (Ala.), Travis Childers (Miss.), Jerry Costello (Ill.), Kathy Dahlkemper (Penn.), Lincoln Davis (Tenn.), Steve Driehaus (Ohio), Tim Holden (Penn.), Paul Kanjorski (Penn.), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Charlie Melancon (La.), John Murtha (Penn.), Jim Oberstar (Minn.), Solomon Ortiz (Texas), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Heath Shuler (N.C.), Bart Stupak (Mich.), and Gene Taylor (Miss).
Conservative Democrats say no to abortion being included in health care.

It is mostly now considered acceptable to deny women the right to make decisions about abortion...and efforts of many groups are making it harder for her to get birth control. The people of the United States are more and more allowing the views of the religious right to carry over into laws.

In the case of women this country is too often allowing medical choices to be made on the basis of religious views. It is easier to do that that standing up to the very vocal religious right minority.

The restriction of and refusal to include abortion in health care reform is merely a symptom of the real problem. The movement by Pharmacists for Life to make it harder for women to get contraception and the morning after pill for emergencies is another symptom.

The real problem is that by telling women they can not make decisions in the areas of all of their reproductive rights, you are giving them a decreased role in our society. If laws are passed that involve two areas of women's lives, then that is a symptom of our society's increasing view that women are a lesser group.

It has not been hard to get our Democratic leaders to go along with restricting these reproductive rights of women.

Harold Ford

Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life.
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003: Vote to pass a bill banning a medical procedure, which is commonly known as "partial-birth" abortion. The procedure would be allowed only in cases in which a women's life is in danger, not for cases where a women's health is in danger. Those who performed this procedure, would face fines and up to two years in prison, the women to whom this procedure is performed on are not held criminally liable.

Tom Carper:

Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life.
S. 3 As Amended; Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Vote to pass a bill banning a medical procedure, which is commonly known as "partial-birth" abortion. Those who performed this procedure would then face fines and up to two years in prison, the women to whom this procedure is performed on are not held criminally liable. This bill would make the exception for cases in which a women's life is in danger, not for cases where a women's health is in danger.

Chuck Schumer:

Governor Rendell, I said who is the best candidate to beat Santorum. He there is only one person who could beat him but he won't run and B you wouldn't want him to. I said why wouldn't we want him to run, he said he's pro-life. He's a deeply religious Catholic man. Bob Casey."

"I said, those days are over Ed. Yes I'm pro-choice, but we need the best candidate. We can't insist that every democrat check off 18 different issues before they get (unintelligible) we could do that, we can't anymore. And so, we persuaded, Harry using his very...Harry has amazing insights into people...and we together persuaded Bob Casey to run. A poll yesterday...national...all the polls they did...Casey 51 Santorum 40. You should see Santorum nervous and walkin on the floor."

Not even for cases of women's health. What a burden that places on woman and physician. What a fear to have threat of a jail sentence hanging over a doctor and his decision. They have taken medical decisions and turned them into religious issues.

Caving in gradually on these rights to make peace with the religious groups and to win elections...is hazardous. It is happening here in our party, and some of the greatest anger now at DU is directed those who say that pro-choice means giving choice in every area of life.

From a NYT article called Pro Life Nation.

More than a dozen countries have liberalized their abortion laws in recent years, including South Africa, Switzerland, Cambodia and Chad. In a handful of others, including Russia and the United States (or parts of it), the movement has been toward criminalizing more and different types of abortions.In South Dakota, the governor recently signed the most restrictive abortion bill since the Supreme Court ruled in 1973, in Roe v. Wade, that state laws prohibiting abortion were unconstitutional. The South Dakota law, which its backers acknowledge is designed to test Roe v. Wade in the courts, forbids abortion, including those cases in which the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. Only if an abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother is the procedure permitted. A similar though less restrictive bill is now making its way through the Mississippi Legislature.

..."In this new movement toward criminalization, El Salvador is in the vanguard. The array of exceptions that tend to exist even in countries where abortion is circumscribed — rape, incest, fetal malformation, life of the mother — don't apply in El Salvador. They were rejected in the late 1990's, in a period after the country's long civil war ended. The country's penal system was revamped and its constitution was amended. Abortion is now absolutely forbidden in every possible circumstance. No exceptions.

Our country is one which is moving more toward criminalization while others are acting more enlightened.

Some of the most shocking statements I have seen lately from Democrats at forums is that they don't want the health care reform to be held up by including women's choice issues in the debate. Just think about that. Many Medicaid plans have for years refused to pay for abortions, and that is effectively keeping poor women in a downtrodden condition. It is a view based on religion. Many are willing to pass health care reform without paying for legal abortions. It is a religious view being used to pass laws that are supposed to be secular-based.

From a great post at RhReality Check.

Dear Gentlemen of the Congress: Excuse us, but have you forgotten about the women in your life?

We are waiting for you to deliver quality, affordable health care for all -- as soon as possible, given the economic trials our families are enduring. Instead, some of you are wasting valuable time and taxpayer dollars proposing amendments that would deny health care to women, gays and lesbians, people with HIV and anybody else conservatives don't like!

Imagine our dismay to see the proposed amendments submitted to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee this week by Republican Senators Michael Enzi, Orin Hatch and Tom Coburn:

Coverage for abortion would be banned;

Health providers and insurers would be protected against "discrimination" for refusing to provide health care requested by their patients including abortions, emergency contraception, aid-in-dying (such as in Oregon, Washington and Montana, where this is legal) or really just about any health service they find objectionable;

Federally-qualified health centers could not provide abortions and still get government grants;

Any independent medical board appointed to determine the benefits that would be included in national health reform coverage would have to include "professional ethicists...with specialty in rights of the life of the unborn."

Now, let's turn to you Democrats who are supposedly running Congress. You are spending far too much time trying to win over colleagues who are never going to vote for health reform, no matter if you offer them abortion exclusions or new provider "conscience" laws or other provisions that would hobble health reform. You need to get over your worries that if you support inclusion of a strong public plan in health reform, somebody is going to call you a socialist.

"Proposing amendments that would deny health care to women, gays and lesbians, people with HIV and anybody else conservatives don't like!"...exactly right. Exactly. Letting the religious right set the agenda.

When many of us here warn about the dangers of slippery slopes like women's rights, we are said to be over-reacting. Some here at DU have said recently that we should not let abortion hold up health care reform.

But on the slippery slope of women's rights....already leaders of major denominations are coming out and saying the birth control is a sin. See what happens if you cave? They just want to take another right away and take our country back further in time. Medical decisions being turned into religious ones. So very wrong.

Southern Baptist pastor calling birth control murder.

It is not just one pastor. Heads of seminaries are supporting the Quiverfull movement which turns women into babymakers.

The Southern Baptist Convention is reacting after News 8 showed a message from a Southern Baptist preacher teaching Fort Worth seminary students that the birth control pill equals murder. In a controversial sermon to students at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Thomas White, acting as the student services vice president this month, preached that birth control is murder and called attempts at family planning selfish.

"Some of you are involved in that exact same sin," he said.

Another questions birth control. Here is Richard Land's view:

"The Southern Baptist Convention is not opposed to the use of birth control within marriage as long as the methods used do not cause the fertilized egg to abort and as long as the methods used do not bar having children altogether unless there's a medical reason the couple should not have children," he said.

And seminary head, Al Mohler, says birth control is "an insidious attack upon God's glory".

I am trying to look at this from a perspective that begins with God's creation," Mohler said. "God's purpose in creation is being trumped by modern practices."

"I would argue that it ought to be falling short of the glory of God. Deliberate childlessness defies God's will," he said.

"..."First, we must start with a rejection of the contraceptive mentality that sees pregnancy and children as impositions to be avoided rather than as gifts to be received, loved, and nurtured. This contraceptive mentality is an insidious attack upon God's glory in creation, and the Creator's gift of procreation to the married couple."

So we have gone from abortion being a sin to birth control effectively being an "insidious attack" on God's creation.

There is a danger in slippery slopes. The topics of abortion and birth control are surface issues of a much deeper belief that is coming to the fore in this country. The belief that women are incapable of making wise decisions...that tends to say they are inferior without using the words.

It leads to the prominent new religious movement that believes women are to be submissive to men, and find their place in the home raising children.

It is going backwards in time to a less enlightened view of women.

We don't need to cave this time on rights for women and rights for gays. We don't need to cave on union issues. We have the votes. Yes, we do have the votes to get through a Democratic agenda.